Focus Group: Horror Films

We took on a task about researching in a focus group about horror movies.

Evaluation and what we learnt:
The girls had different views on what horror films that they enjoy most. They mentioned that they don't enjoy watching horror films simply because of the gore and violence which creates the horror genre. These typical conventions aim to scare the audience, which is why some people do not like watching movies in the horror genre. However, not all audience members are the same. Some people (as mentioned in the recording) are excited by the killing and gory scenes, their adrenaline pumps. 
Some girls also mentioned that the frustration of some characters and the plot makes them question what is going on and they engage in questions with people around them while watching, this sense of engagement and relationship thee horror film builds with the audience is exciting yet scary and allows people to think. She is clearly and active audience as she likes to receive information and engage with it.

The girls mentioned they access films through Netflix, VOD platforms, cinema and TV. Clearly the girls engage with online platforms and watch films online. This ease of watching films online allows these girls to access the film and enjoy it. From this information, I understand that putting our film on an online platform such as YouTube where people are able to access videos easily.

 

One girl mentioned that she likes films about zombies and the dead coming to life. Another girl mentioned that she prefers thriller movies to scary/creepy movies as thriller includes adventure and suspense without giving chilling nightmares.

Everyone mentioned they preferred psychological horror to supernatural horror, we think especially for teens at the age of 15, they may feel frightened at supernatural and frightening paranormal films that leave them scared and distraught.

The majority of the girls mentioned they like to watch it with people to feel less frightened. However one girl mentioned that she watches alone as she doesn't have anyone to watch it with and she has younger children in her family that are too young to watch horror films.

 If the film does not follow the codes and conventions then it's not scary. For example according to the girls, horror films must have scary music when something scary is about to happen and the setting must be dark and gloomy and link with the scene that is taking place. For instance if a murder were to take place in the film, the setting must have low-key lighting with shadows and the music must get increasingly louder to build suspense and fear.

Majority of the girls think characters must be dark and mysterious. Another girl mentioned she likes the 'out-of-place' characters as it builds this curiosity in a person which leaves them wanting to explore. In many horror films the villain usually has a horrible past that people don't know of until the end of the film. For example, in the film Split (2016) the antagonist Kevin has had a terrible past with abuse from his mother which has led him to becoming evil and dangerous. This mystery of the antagonist kept audiences on their toes, curious to find out about this terrible past.

Everyone in the focus group preferred horror films to have a cliff-hanger as the audience is able to control and decide what happens next with their imagination. This suspense with a cliff-hanger anticipates the audience for a sequel. Moreover, horror films that have cliff-hangers are proven to be successful and popular as the audience ultimately want an explanation of what happens next, therefore this fans go on to writing fan-fiction which builds up excitement and anticipation. Also some people prefer a finality to a movie and want an explanation to what happened.

The target audience benefited our research as we gained an insight into what our target audience like to watch in a horror film and what they don't. It will help to construct our ideas when making our own film and will make it easier for us to create a narrative as we will bare in mind what will make our target audience watch our product and what factors will make them not want to watch it.